It's just that I received my GR07 yesterday and found that my experience with them has been pretty similar to yours:

"the earphones fail to impress when it comes to resolution or smoothness (...) I am generally quite sensitive to sibilance and listening to some of my tracks with the GR07 was downright unpleasant"

There's a lack of transparency that annoys me, and the treble seems very unrefined and not very resolving.

To be honest it hardly sounds any better than my Etymotic MC5, which I happen to not like very much - lifeless and boring.

I find it a bit hard to believe that the GR07 sonic performance can improve so much as to deserve more than one point above MC5 sonic performance... but I have hopes, despite not having very faith in burn-in...

Hey Joker, Discovered your thread while on my break at work earlier today and have been reading since, great help for a lost beginner like myself, thought id join up and ask the guru himself.

I am looking to upgrade from my 2 year old Sony XB40EX, reading your review on them mirrored my exact thoughts and was enough to convince me that it was time to upgrade, I listen to a wide variety of music genres and will be using my iphone and laptop/pc (no soundcard).

Comfort is important coming from the horrible XB40, while I do like bass the sonys make me sick after a short while, I guess good quality over quantity. Isolation is not important but good sound stage would be a nice feel from the closed feeling I have now.

Going through your list, I have narrowed it down to the EX1000, FX700, Westone 4 and GR07 but am a little worried that I would not be getting the best out of them considering my sources. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I own all but the Westones and are easily driven by my ipod and iphone. The EX and FX have the best soundstage. The GR07 is the best value but 50ohm compared to 32 for EX and 16 for FX but still sounds fine out of portable players.

Well, I think we need a new term - 'jokered'. Go to the j-phonics site and try to order either version of the K2 .....

I think users are apprehensive in paying $399 for a dual-driver IEM, we are inclined to think more drivers = better, I was suscpicious of that thinking until the 6-driver custom IEM's proved otherwise, when I heard the UM Miracle demo unit.

I didn't like the K2 SP at all, Shigzeo said he didn't think head-fi would 'get it' and I guess I'm the first one here that didn't. The K2 SP and the SE535 are the only two IEM's I've heard I consider of weak sound quality for their price.

Quote:

Originally Posted by estreeter

[/] but why restrict yourself to one market when they can clearly sell to the world ? A savvy exporter in Japan could really make a killing selling these 'Japanese market only' products to the rest of the world - they do it with cars, and thats a much larger piece of kit to ship .....

Japan doesn't care about marketing to the rest of the world much, we'll probably still be able to order them with tenso.com however at a higher price, I think it's around $480, I can only see Sensaphonics 2-XS users doing that.

The 2-XS use the exact same drivers as the K2 SP, Shigzeo thinks the K2 SP sounds even better, he bought the K2 MX version as well, I think he was excited about his first custom IEM being released as a universal, the 2-XS was very popular a few years ago.

I saw one Japanese review that said the K2 SP sound quality doesn't match the price (Japanese price), and after mine went to i2ehan he put them up for sale within a few days so I'm not completely alone with my thoughts.

They are however, highly technically proficient, and would sound 'okay' as a stage monitor, but in that scenario I'd rather use the Shure SE425, IMHO.

I saw one Japanese review that said the K2 SP sound quality doesn't match the price (Japanese price), and after mine went to i2ehan he put them up for sale within a few days so I'm not completely alone with my thoughts.

Can't say I didn't try and find every possible way to like them, but they just weren't up to par with the rest of my top-tiers, in terms of enjoyment that is. From a technical standpoint, I have no trouble agreeing with |joker|'s evaluation, and in all honesty, I expected for them to score no less than the EX1000's. They're very technically proficient, but I personally don't feel it's a matter of few will get it, most won't. On the contrary, I believe most will get it, but only few will find it suitable to their liking/enjoyment. Kiteki and I just so happen to be in the most category, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with the few that do find the K2 to their liking.

It's just that I received my GR07 yesterday and found that my experience with them has been pretty similar to yours:

"the earphones fail to impress when it comes to resolution or smoothness (...) I am generally quite sensitive to sibilance and listening to some of my tracks with the GR07 was downright unpleasant"

There's a lack of transparency that annoys me, and the treble seems very unrefined and not very resolving.

To be honest it hardly sounds any better than my Etymotic MC5, which I happen to not like very much - lifeless and boring.

I find it a bit hard to believe that the GR07 sonic performance can improve so much as to deserve more than one point above MC5 sonic performance... but I have hopes, despite not having very faith in burn-in...

So yeah, how would you score the GR07 sound out of the box?

Thanks!

I hated the IEM out of the box, but after about 150hr mechanical burn in (and mental burn in too), it was like love at first sight...

Interesting last page or so of posts - two very different IEMs, GR07 and K2, but it appears that the former were 'good enough' out of the box to convince new owners to stick with them, whilst the latter generally weren't. Anyway, thanks for the feedback - I'm still considering the GR07 but the K2 sounds like more (expensive) trouble than its worth for my modest requirements.

Those Soundmagic PL-30's have been a good investment. Very accurate and portable for the low low price of $22.50 - $30

My first proper IEM. Never let them go either - the paint has peeled but otherwise they are still going strong after 3 years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moby1

Hey Joker, Discovered your thread while on my break at work earlier today and have been reading since, great help for a lost beginner like myself, thought id join up and ask the guru himself.

I am looking to upgrade from my 2 year old Sony XB40EX, reading your review on them mirrored my exact thoughts and was enough to convince me that it was time to upgrade, I listen to a wide variety of music genres and will be using my iphone and laptop/pc (no soundcard).

Comfort is important coming from the horrible XB40, while I do like bass the sonys make me sick after a short while, I guess good quality over quantity. Isolation is not important but good sound stage would be a nice feel from the closed feeling I have now.

Going through your list, I have narrowed it down to the EX1000, FX700, Westone 4 and GR07 but am a little worried that I would not be getting the best out of them considering my sources. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

For the most open feel I would go with the EX1000 (or EX600 if you just want to put one foot forward) or FX700. I think an iPhone should work reasonably well with both. Don't remember them being too revealing of electrical noise with my laptop, either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kkl10

Hey there, ljoker.

Could you please answer this question for me?

What would you rate the sound of the Vsonic GR07 out of the box?

It's just that I received my GR07 yesterday and found that my experience with them has been pretty similar to yours:

"the earphones fail to impress when it comes to resolution or smoothness (...) I am generally quite sensitive to sibilance and listening to some of my tracks with the GR07 was downright unpleasant"

There's a lack of transparency that annoys me, and the treble seems very unrefined and not very resolving.

To be honest it hardly sounds any better than my Etymotic MC5, which I happen to not like very much - lifeless and boring.

I find it a bit hard to believe that the GR07 sonic performance can improve so much as to deserve more than one point above MC5 sonic performance... but I have hopes, despite not having very faith in burn-in...

So yeah, how would you score the GR07 sound out of the box?

Thanks!

It's been a while but I remember A:Bing it with the RE-ZERO and thinking they weren't too far apart. Score-wise in the 8.5 range, probably.

Quote:

Originally Posted by i2ehan

Quote:

Can't say I didn't try and find every possible way to like them, but they just weren't up to par with the rest of my top-tiers, in terms of enjoyment that is. From a technical standpoint, I have no trouble agreeing with |joker|'s evaluation, and in all honesty, I expected for them to score no less than the EX1000's. They're very technically proficient, but I personally don't feel it's a matter of few will get it, most won't. On the contrary, I believe most will get it, but only few will find it suitable to their liking/enjoyment. Kiteki and I just so happen to be in the most category, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with the few that do find the K2 to their liking.

For what it's worth I wouldn't buy a K2 over an EX1000 either unless I was shopping for a monitor. Also wouldn't buy it over a CTM-200 unless I wanted an aggressive signature, but that's a different story.

Hi joker, I have a TF10 and like the detail, clarity and of course the treble. I believe it has good quality bass and sub bass but would like more bass impact. If the mids were somewhat more forward that would be a plus. Which dynamic would you recommend for < $200? Oh and if it was just a hair more comfortable, that too would be a plus.

I had S4, it was too boomie and X10 which I thought was more balanced but had little detail and clarity, especially compared with TF10.

Quite good, in the (very) limited time I have to actually enjoy it. I have been lucky with the review queue lately as it's got gear I actually like (EX600, ACS T15, SBA-03)

Quote:

Originally Posted by olear

Hi joker, I have a TF10 and like the detail, clarity and of course the treble. I believe it has good quality bass and sub bass but would like more bass impact. If the mids were somewhat more forward that would be a plus. Which dynamic would you recommend for < $200? Oh and if it was just a hair more comfortable, that too would be a plus.

I had S4, it was too boomie and X10 which I thought was more balanced but had little detail and clarity, especially compared with TF10.

Thank you

The GR07 would seem closest as it 'fills in' the midrange with bass and treble quantities not far off from the TF10. The EX600 would be another option. However, neither of these is significantly more impactful than a well-fitted TF10 despite being dynamics. It is entirely possible that they won't be bassy enough; in that case I am not familiar with an IEM that fits all of your criteria. There is another option - the ATH-CKM99 - but that has mild midrange recession a-la TF10. I think the recession is smaller with the CKM99 but it is still made noticeable by the powerful bass.

Quite good, in the (very) limited time I have to actually enjoy it. I have been lucky with the review queue lately as it's got gear I actually like (EX600, ACS T15, SBA-03)

The GR07 would seem closest as it 'fills in' the midrange with bass and treble quantities not far off from the TF10. The EX600 would be another option. However, neither of these is significantly more impactful than a well-fitted TF10 despite being dynamics. It is entirely possible that they won't be bassy enough; in that case I am not familiar with an IEM that fits all of your criteria. There is another option - the ATH-CKM99 - but that has mild midrange recession a-la TF10. I think the recession is smaller with the CKM99 but it is still made noticeable by the powerful bass.

I would be willing to have some midrange recession as a trade off for significantly more bass impact vs TF10. In this case, which IEMs do you recommend? Thanks joker

I can't speak for the others, but my GR07s sound great out of my iPod and my PC

I suppose I should be fine then, the GR07 seem like a safe bet for all types of genres and the price point is attractive, How have you found the sound stage and fit?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DannyBai

I own all but the Westones and are easily driven by my ipod and iphone. The EX and FX have the best soundstage. The GR07 is the best value but 50ohm compared to 32 for EX and 16 for FX but still sounds fine out of portable players.

Out of the 3 you own, what would you rate best in terms of comfort?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ljokerl

For the most open feel I would go with the EX1000 (or EX600 if you just want to put one foot forward) or FX700. I think an iPhone should work reasonably well with both. Don't remember them being too revealing of electrical noise with my laptop, either.

Ahh this will be a tough choice, Do you feel the EX1000 and FX700 are worth the extra cost over the GR07? Looking for that major jump from my horrible muddy mess

I actually like the GR07 best in comfort, the moving nozzle is worth its weight in gold. Though others have no problems, I do not like the EX1000's form factor. The FX700 is fine, but the barrel is somewhat large, so it could be an issue with some people. None are bad, but I have never had any problems with the GR07.